Pilots are faced with two major tasks; i.e. (1) accurately determining and remaining constantly aware of the current aircraft status; and (2) making adjustments in response to changes in aircraft status. In support of this, avionics display systems have been extensively engineered to visually convey a considerable amount of flight information in an intuitive and readily comprehendible manner.
In conventional avionics display systems, much of the information is visually expressed on a cockpit display, (e.g., a primary flight display, a navigation display, a horizontal map display, a vertical situation display, etc.) The visually expressed information is instantaneous direct information about the space around the aircraft, such as nearby geographical features (e.g., mountain peaks, runways, etc.), current weather conditions (e.g. developing storm cells), and aircraft parameters (e.g., the heading, drift, roll, yaw and pitch of the host aircraft). The amount of visually expressed information increased with the introduction of flight management systems, a type of specialized computer that includes a database of pre-stored navigation landmarks such as airports and arbitrary intersections (referred to herein as waypoints) in the sky. The visual information that is presented to the pilot via a flight management system, or similar device, includes aircraft notifications or alerts that may be time sensitive.
In addition to visual aircraft notifications, pilots must comprehend aural aircraft notifications, such as alerts that typically chime on the occurrence of, but not before, an event. The introduction of required time of arrival (RTA), coupled with the increase in data link communication, such as Controller Pilot Data Link Communication (CPDLC), has increased the number of aircraft notification items a pilot has to remember and respond to at a future time. Currently, to perform time-constrained tasks, the pilot has to make his own notes and remember to perform the tasks at the appropriate time. Examples of time-constrained tasks include responding to air traffic control (ATC) instructions (that have a mandatory pilot response for a clearance to be executed in the future), pilot “report position [at time]” instructions, Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) activation expiry time, and XM weather expiry time (NOTAM and XM weather expiry time do not have mandatory pilot response, but the pilot should review them).
Pilots also strive to create a precise picture of future situations having time-based notifications using information that is currently available to them such as weather reports and forecasts, pilot reports, NOTAM, information about other air traffic, and the like. In order to create a precise picture of future situations, pilots traditionally have to synthesize temporal information from various sources; for example, information disseminated as NOTAMs, published activation of restricted airspaces, and/or weather information with an estimate of future predicted positions. The traditional approach is time-consuming and requires a significant amount of cognitive resources and memory allocation; e.g., one or more navigation mechanisms are supported by pull-down menus, toolbars, dialog boxes, etc. Thus, providing each piece of information individually without a broader context does not enhance the temporal or local aspects of the information provided.
In view of the foregoing, a system and method for providing integrated time-based notification is desirable. The desirable system and method generates and displays a timescale providing temporal notification data that may be integrated into an existing aircraft display system. It would further be desirable for the display to continuously update the temporal data as the aircraft flies, and to respond to user requests to pan forward in time, pan backward in time and adjust the zoom. In this manner, temporal information responsive to the flight process and the pilot input is integrated into the cockpit display, reducing workload, and increasing efficiency when making strategic decisions.